EP Entrepreneurs Pitch: Vegan Lifestyle Operator

This week EP held one of its Entrepreneurs Pitch events where several exciting and innovative concepts were presented in front of a global hotel chain.

  

In times of uncertainty innovation is becoming more important than ever before, it inspires the consumer and makes the essential point of difference between a site and their next-door competitor.

One of these entrepreneurs was a vegan and allergen free concept. With delicious food offers, the dishes appeal for a growing market in the UK. Only this week new data from Mintel revealed that the UK has overtaken Germany as world leader in vegan food launches.It is exiting time and the key findings were:

• One in six (16%) food products launched in the UK in 2018 had a vegan/no animal ingredient claim, doubling from just 8% in 2015
• Overall, one in ten (9%) food products launched in Europe in 2018 had a vegan/no animal ingredients claim, doubling from 5% in 2015
• A mature and saturated market, Germany has seen wilting numbers of vegan food new product development, with the total share of food launches classified as vegan falling from 15% in 2017 to 13% in 2018

         

How big is veganism in the UK?

The Vegan Society also found there are 600,000 vegans in Great Britain in 2018, or 1.16% of the population. The number of vegans doubled from up to 150,000 (0.25%) in 2014 to 276,000 (0.46%) in 2016, and – incredibly – doubled again from the 276,000 (0.46%) in 2016 to 600,000 (1.16%) in 2018.This means the number of vegans quadrupled between 2014 and 2018.*

It is exiting time and the key findings were:

• One in six (16%) food products launched in the UK in 2018 had a vegan/no animal ingredient claim, doubling from just 8% in 2015
• Overall, one in ten (9%) food products launched in Europe in 2018 had a vegan/no animal ingredients claim, doubling from 5% in 2015
• A mature and saturated market, Germany has seen wilting numbers of vegan food new product development, with the total share of food launches classified as vegan falling from 15% in 2017 to 13% in 2018

There are also those who are taking part in Veganuary, where people pledge to go vegan for the month of January. A record 170,000 people across 14 countries have officially signed up and their three top reasons for taking part are:

• Concerns over animal welfare
• Followed by health reasons
• And then the environment impact

It is a fascinating time and EP is proud to support a wide collection of entrepreneurs who are making positive impact.

Source: The Food & You surveys, organised by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the National Centre for Social Science Research (Natcen) and Ipsos Mori survey, commissioned by The Vegan Society, 2018.